Knitting for Boo
Nov. 12th, 2007 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I've recently become interested in the use of wool soakers in cloth diapering, which is apparently a very old-fashioned way of covering diapers. Before there were rubber or plastic pants, people used wool pants (called "soakers") to cover diapers. Because wool naturally contains lanolin (if it hasn't been processed), it is naturally quite waterproof. It sounds hard to believe, but people who use it swear it works.
So I decided that this would be a good thing to try to do with Boo at night. Tucking him into soft fuzzy diaper covers at night sounds comfy, and has the added bonus of being things I can knit for him. I went looking for patterns and found two I wanted to try: the Curly Purly pattern and the Sheepy Pants pattern. I dug into my wool stash and knitted one of each.

The Sheepy pants are on the left and the Curly Purly pants are on the right. They were actually quite easy to make and quick to knit up. I made these in newborn sizes, thinking that they're probably stretchy enough that I'll be able to use them for a few weeks at least. I'll probably go ahead and make a few pairs in the next size up too. The Sheepy pants have a lot of options (as you can see on the linked page above) to choose from, so the pattern is quite flexible. I think this will be a good opportunity for me to try out some things I've been putting off trying, like knitting in color designs. I've seen really cute soakers for holidays, soakers with flowers and animals knitted in, and so on. They knit up quickly and the yarn is fairly cheap, so I think this will be fun. :-)
This link was posted today on a CD mailing list I subscribe to: A History of Diapers. Pretty interesting!
In other news, my sister found out today that her baby is a girl!
So I decided that this would be a good thing to try to do with Boo at night. Tucking him into soft fuzzy diaper covers at night sounds comfy, and has the added bonus of being things I can knit for him. I went looking for patterns and found two I wanted to try: the Curly Purly pattern and the Sheepy Pants pattern. I dug into my wool stash and knitted one of each.
The Sheepy pants are on the left and the Curly Purly pants are on the right. They were actually quite easy to make and quick to knit up. I made these in newborn sizes, thinking that they're probably stretchy enough that I'll be able to use them for a few weeks at least. I'll probably go ahead and make a few pairs in the next size up too. The Sheepy pants have a lot of options (as you can see on the linked page above) to choose from, so the pattern is quite flexible. I think this will be a good opportunity for me to try out some things I've been putting off trying, like knitting in color designs. I've seen really cute soakers for holidays, soakers with flowers and animals knitted in, and so on. They knit up quickly and the yarn is fairly cheap, so I think this will be fun. :-)
This link was posted today on a CD mailing list I subscribe to: A History of Diapers. Pretty interesting!
In other news, my sister found out today that her baby is a girl!
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Date: 2007-11-13 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 04:23 am (UTC)The covers look lovely! I've become addicted to knitting those things. Did you know there's an LJ comm called
By the way, there have been studies now that say the plastic typically used in baby bottles actually leaches out some chemicals that are potentially dangerous. It's serious enough that the EU is looking to ban these kinds of bottles. I know you plan to breastfeed, but you may eventually use bottles as well, so look for either glass bottles, or bottles made with biphenol-A-free plastic. (Erm, I'm going from memory on that name.) Born Free is a brand that makes both glass, and the safe plastic.
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Date: 2007-11-13 10:12 am (UTC)Opinion of the Scientific Panel on food additives, flavourings, rocessing aids and materials in contact with food (AFC) related to 2,2-BIS(4-HYDROXYPHENYL)PROPANE[pdf]
See also:
Bisphenol A in food packaging from senseaboutscience.org.uk
Bisphenol A: A Scientific Evaluation, Michael A. Kamrin, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Environmental Toxicology, Michigan State University. MedGenMed. 2004; 6(3): 7. Published online 2004 September 3.
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Date: 2007-11-13 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 01:25 pm (UTC)And yes, I love that comm! I've learned quite a lot there. :-)
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Date: 2007-11-13 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 01:07 pm (UTC)I googled and found a couple of good sites that explain how to lanolize: here (http://www.twelve-paws.com/index.php/2007/08/16/how-to-wash-and-lanolize-wool/), here (http://www.wildflowerdiapers.com/pages/woolinfo.php), and here (http://understandinglaura.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-lanolize-woolwithout-lanolin.html). I'm going to be trying that soon, so I'll have to let you know how it goes. :-)
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Date: 2007-11-14 07:23 pm (UTC)I abhor handwashing. Then again, I love knitting - so I could just keep knitting new soakers to make up for the dirty ones. :D
It looks cool, though. I'll have to try it just for the novelty. So did you get prefolds, then?
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Date: 2007-11-15 02:46 am (UTC)Making soakers is fun! They're so quick to knit up, almost like socks -- but in one piece, heh. I've been wanting to try intarsia, and a soaker seems like a good excuse. That's my next project. :-D
Oh, and I found spray-on lanolin at my local CD shop today. Apparently you don't have to do any soaking, just spray the stuff on. I'm going to try that and see if I like it.
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Date: 2007-11-15 02:50 am (UTC)